Thursday, December 12, 2013

Aloo Da Parauntha

While I do love most cuisines from around the world which but naturally include all those lovely variants of India Punjabi cuisine made the authentic way remains one of my top picks and here is why. The land of five rivers has this exquisite robust cuisine spicy creamy delicious. Traditionally the food would be cooked in pure "sudhdh" homemade "ghee" (clarified butter) and i do not see why it should be changed one bit. The real essence is in the spoonful of homemade butter added to most dishes making it a delicious affair to remember for all your senses.

Aloo Da parauntha (Stuffed Potato flat bread cooked on a girdle with "sudhdh desi ghee" is a delicious treat. To me this delectable filling dish made without ghee is like cheese sauce minus the cheese, or pizza without any tomato base or french toast without eggs, its just not the same without the aroma of ghee filling your kitchen and a puffed up flatbread with enough stuffing to make it a gorgeous meal. I mean if you want to be healthy you eat steamed vegetables with poached fish or chicken on the other days , why take your revenge on the aloo da parauntha ?

Basically it is a simple recipe but takes some practice to be perfected. While I have come across many a person from the very land from which this dish originates put in different spices etc I like mine robust spicy and full of flavour. I followed two amalgamated recipe and this is what I have. due to the seasonal change my ghee was kind of clotted and so I used heaped teaspoonfuls. Juts before I was about to start I found out that my homemade garam masala has finished off and so off I went dry roasting my spices for garam masala and filling my kitchen with that tempting seductive aroma.

Boil the potatoes to a stage where they can easily be mashed to a pulp. While it boils make your dough. Now the success of paraunthas or any flatbread depend upon your skills of making the dough. Keep kneading well for a long time and you have fluffy beautiful soft paranthas. Keep it aside for 1 hour wrapped in wet cloth. I sued a pressure cooker to cook my potatoes, took them out smashed them with the back of a fork and left them aside.

Next comes the making of the filling. Chop your chilies and coriander. Make it as fine as possible to prevent poking out of the filling. Add the spices and make a smooth paste without nay lumps. Make them into little balls and then taek the dough and knead it for 2 minutes and make four big balls .

Now there are a number of ways to put in the stuffing but after numerous failures what worked like magic for me was to roll out the dough a little bit , add the stuffing and then seal it, using wet hands while sealing helps me. Seal them in such a way that it forms a ball. Roll out on a flour dusted surface but use the pressure carefully else little bits will poke out. Now take your girdle and add 1 heaped dessertspoonful of ghee and ad your parauntha. Press the sides and when it puffs up a bit add 1 dessertspoon of ghee on top and flip and cook till all done and puffed up a bit. Once done add a dollop of unsalted butter.

Serve with homemade curd and I did use homemadeHara Bhara Chutney . The yogurt is a great balancing ingredient for all that ghee and the hara bhara chutney is just delicious with the paraunthas.

P.S. The one who was exceptionally happy was the grizzly bear who fondly recalled the numerous times he had passed through Punjab and would indulge in "exactly these type" of deliicous aloo da parauntha